Tobacco use prevention for the young (TUPY): development and effectiveness of an interactive media awareness module from adolescents' perspective

Tobacco product (TP) use is a major social problem among adolescents despite many strategies implemented to address it. This study aims to develop and determine the effectiveness of an interactive media module on TP use prevention from adolescents’
perspective (TUPY-S). This study utilised mixed methodology in combination with Russell’s technique of development of modular instruction. The adolescents’ perspective was explored for the need assessment, content and mode of delivery. The content was
constructed from the adolescents’ perspective integrated with social theories including the Health Belief Model, Social Learning Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior. The content and face validities were done among six experts and 10 early adolescents respectively. Tobacco Use Prevention for The Young Questionnaire (TUPY-Q) was constructed that consists of the criterion items to evaluate Tobacco Use Prevention Strategy for The Young (TUPY-S) module which include knowledge, attitude, intention to use and refusal self-efficacy. The effectiveness of TUPY-S was evaluated in a quasiexperimental study among 217 male adolescents at risk to use TP at three intervals: preintervention, at 1-week and 8-week post-intervention. A total of 108 and 109 male adolescents aged 10 to 11 years old were assigned into control and intervention groups
respectively to determine the effectiveness of TUPY-S. The Repeated Measure ANCOVA was applied to determine the effect of intervention across time. The findings indicate that knowledge was significantly improved in the intervention group. Although there was no statistically significant difference in attitude, intention, and refusal to use TP, the overall outcomes were favourable towards the intervention group during the study. This module is effective in improving knowledge to use TP among adolescents at risk, despite being moderately so in terms of attitude, intention, and refusal to use TP. Therefore, in general TUPY-S is suitable for the adolescents of the current generation living in Malaysia.